SYDNEY: Australia has banned DeepSeek from all government devices as it seeks to block “an unacceptable level of security risk” presented by the Chinese AI programme, according to an official order on Tuesday.

“After considering threat and risk analysis, I have determined that the use of DeepSeek products, applications and web services poses an unacceptable level of security risk to the Australian Government,” Department of Home Affairs Secretary Step­hanie Foster said in the directive.

As of Wednesday all non-corporate Commonwealth entities must “identify and remove all existing instances of DeepSeek products, applications and web services on all Australian Government systems and mobile devices.”

The directive also required that access, use or installation of DeepSeek be prevented across government systems and mobile devices.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2025